So You Think You Can Dance Recap: Vegas Week

It was a tear-filled week on Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" but, by the end of it, the top 20 contestants winning spots on the show were named. On Wednesday night's episode, the grueling process that narrowed down the contestants to the 20 left at the end of Thursday's show was covered in two hours of dancing, praise, rejections, and yes, more tears. During "Vegas Week," a team of judges narrowed down the number of contestants through a series of cuts.

First, the dancers took on a hip-hop routine. Then came ballroom, jazz and contemporary before the contestants were split into groups to choreograph their own routines. After more cuts, the girls and guys split up to learn different Broadway style routines from "West Side Story." Finally, the 16 remaining guys and 16 remaining girls performed their solos in front of the judges, though only snippets of these were shown to viewers at home.

In an hour-long episode on Thursday, the judges brought each contestant on stage individually to announce whether they had a place in the top twenty or not.

There were few surprises. As could be expected, many of the 16 that had not been given much air time in past episodes were cut, though there were a few that were not focused on by cameras that made it through such as Jeanine Mason, Melissa Sandvig and Max Kapitannikov. Some of most tear-filled moments came from contestants that had been covered by the cameras in the episodes leading up to this one. For example, Popper Phillip Chbeeb was forced to leave Vegas early last season due to illness but came back for the fifth season. He began to cry when he heard that it had been worthwhile and he would appear in the top 20. Hip-hop dancer Tony Bellissimo was visibly surprised at making it through to the top 20 after struggling with some of the technique in the previous round. He was even asked to repeat the choreography for the contemporary style portion of the eliminations.

Another surprise announcement from the judges came when Alex Wong presented himself on stage. Though an excellent dancer, they were unable to accept him into the show because he was still under contract with the Miami City Ballet. He was visibly upset.

The emotions ran especially high when the final girl and final guy were announced. Contemporary dancer Deana Brickley and Latin Ballroom dance Asuka Kondoh were the last women remaining. Asuka made it though. Deana burst into tears upon hearing that she would not be on the show for the second time.

The final moment was bittersweet for Broadway-style dancers the Kasprzak brothers. Evan and Ryan knew that one of them would be going home. The judges ended up going with younger brother Evan, over Ryan who had choreographed Evan's audition routine. After giving his brother a tearful goodbye, Evan made it over to the other winning contestants who cheered into the cameras, pumped to be a part of the fifth season of "So You Think You Can Dance."